Prefab seems always to be the next big thing—the solution to our chronic shortage of middle-class housing, a means to making contemporary design affordable. It's been around for a while, of course, from the "Modern Homes" that Sears, Roebuck sold via catalogue to Buckminster Fuller's curvy Dymaxion prototype to recent experiments in shipping-container chic. But lately there's been a lot to look at, and much of it's good-looking.

The LV Home, by the Chilean-born, Missouri-based architect Rocio Romero, is an effort to make "high-end modern design" not only affordable but unintimidating too. The kit-of-parts—basically the exterior shell—starts at $32,900, and Romero's web site features testimonials like this, from a Wisconsin homebuyer: "the closest I could ever get to the aesthetics of the Mies van der Rohe Plano house."

For the manufacturer Kannustalo, Ltd., the Finnish firm Heikkinen-Komonen Architects have created the Touch House. First exhibited at a housing fair, the 2,000-square-foot house hasn't been yet been widely marketed, which seems a shame.

Austrian architect Oskar Leo Kaufmann designed the SU-SI House in the mid-'90s, for his sister Suzy. A couple of years ago, the 1,400-square-foot house was constructed—or rather, assembled—on a rural site in Sullivan County, New York, for about $300,000, for a Manhattan photographer and his family.

Marmol Radziner Prefab, a division of the Los Angeles firm, designs "factory-made modules shipped ready to occupy." The architects, known for design/build work, both manufacture the modules and supervise construction. So far one house has been built, in Palm Springs—near Richard Neutra's Kaufmann House, which the firm restored—and a few more are underway.

In the past decade forward-looking and fast-moving cities around the world have been investing in railroad stations — or "intermodal transportation centers," to use the vogue terminology. Here are some of the most ambitious, both built and on the boards.

UN Studio, the Dutch firm led by Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos, is planning the mammoth Arnhem Central. When finished, the 1.7-million-square-foot station will accommodate not just rail, trolley, and bus lines but also shops, offices, and apartments. In true Dutch style, the garage will house 1,000 cars and 5,000 bicycles.

Designed by the partnership of Wilkinson Eyre Architects, Stratford Station, in East London, links four rail lines. The steel-framed, aluminum-clad, quarter-ellipse roof is designed to enhance natural ventilation and provide a contemporary look for a redeveloping neighborhood.

Scheduled to be completed in 2006, Lehrter Station (images here), designed by von Gerkan, Marg + Partners, will be among the greenest in Europe, with photovoltaics integrated into its south-facing glass roofs. It will also be among the biggest, handling more than 200,000 passengers per day, 30,000,000 per year.

The Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava has described his spectacular World Trade Center Transportation Hub (images here), which will connect subway, rail, and ferry lines, as consisting of "glass, steel, and light." Some of those materials aren't cheap: Unveiled a year ago and scheduled to be completed at the end of the decade, this Ground Zero station is budgeted at $2 billion.

With oil prices at historic highs and environmental pollution increasingly inescapable, should sustainable design be second nature? These projects show that high design and high performance can be artfully compatible.

The Commerzbank Headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, by the British firm Foster and Partners, is a high-rise office building — the tallest to date in Europe — whose windows actually open and close (images here). In the U.S. we still have a lot to learn from the Europeans about the value of natural ventilation and daylight.

And some clients are starting to get the message: the biotechnology powerhouse Genzyme Corporation hired the German firm Behnisch, Behnisch + Partner to design the Genzyme Building in Cambridge, Massachusetts (more here), and the result is a sleek showcase of sustainability.

It will be exciting to watch the new New York Times Building (images here) rise almost 750 feet above Times Square. Designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, the 52-story glass-skinned tower promises an array of "integrated technologies" that will reduce its draw on the power grid . . . surely a good thing for the nonstop newsroom that covers the city that never sleeps.

Rammed earth walls and a weathered steel roof, evaporative cooling and radiant heat, native trees and cacti — architect Rick Joy uses all these in a house north of Tucson that doesn't ignore but instead revels in its desert setting (some images here).

PIXEL POINTS homePIXEL POINTS archivesAbout Nancy Levinson I like to think of architectural journalism as an extension of architectural practice. MoreAbout Pixel Points Pixel Points is a reference to an influential magazine called Pencil PointsMore

PREFABPrefab seems always to be the next big thing—the solution to our chronic shortage of middle-class housing, a means to making contemporary design affordable. It's been around for a while, of course, from the "Modern Homes" that Sears, Roebuck sold via catalogue to Buckminster Fuller's curvy Dymaxion prototype to recent experiments in shipping-container chic. But lately there's been a lot to look at, and much of it's good-looking.

The LV Home, by the Chilean-born, Missouri-based architect Rocio Romero, is an effort to make "high-end modern design" not only affordable but unintimidating too. The kit-of-parts—basically the exterior shell—starts at $32,900, and Romero's web site features testimonials like this, from a Wisconsin homebuyer: "the closest I could ever get to the aesthetics of the Mies van der Rohe Plano house."

For the manufacturer Kannustalo, Ltd., the Finnish firm Heikkinen-Komonen Architects have created the Touch House. First exhibited at a housing fair, the 2,000-square-foot house hasn't been yet been widely marketed, which seems a shame.

Austrian architect Oskar Leo Kaufmann designed the SU-SI House in the mid-'90s, for his sister Suzy. A couple of years ago, the 1,400-square-foot house was constructed—or rather, assembled—on a rural site in Sullivan County, New York, for about $300,000, for a Manhattan photographer and his family.

Marmol Radziner Prefab, a division of the Los Angeles firm, designs "factory-made modules shipped ready to occupy." The architects, known for design/build work, both manufacture the modules and supervise construction. So far one house has been built, in Palm Springs—near Richard Neutra's Kaufmann House, which the firm restored—and a few more are underway. More

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HOUSESSome mostly recent books on houses, some posh, some not.

The Green HouseAuthors Alanna Stang and Christopher Hawthorne argue that green design is not just ecologically responsible but also high style— "camera ready." They make a good case, using projects like Georg Driendl's Solar Tube, in Vienna, Brian MacKay-Lyons's Howard House, in Nova Scotia, and Lahz Nimmo's Casuarina Beach House, in northern New South Wales.

The Very Small HomeThe subtitle says it: "Japanese Ideas for Living Well in Limited Space." Author Azby Brown has compiled a collection of houses most of which are so diminutive they'd fit into the master bath of a McMansion. These include Tadao Ando's austere 4 x 4 House, just 243 s.f., and Architecture Lab's White Box House, a comparatively roomy 559 s.f.

David Adjaye HousesA handsome monograph featuring a dozen of the houses that have made Adjaye a rising star of London architecture. These include Elektra House and Dirty House, plus the residences he's designed for Ewan McGregor and Chris Ofili.